Tobacco Documents Online

e) 1 ., 5 G APPF;ARAI!CES : Mr, Ar.ti:c::y L. Fletcher, and A!r, -T?;:othy C. Quinn, Jr. (Conbcy,.I-:eilitt, O'Brien & Boardman ) 20 Exchar,ge Plaza New York, New York 10005 appeared on behalf of the Plaintiff; Mr. R. Bradlee Boal (Cooper, Dunham, Clark, Griffin & Moran) 8 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, New York 10020 c°~ -- ~ and v 10 - Mr. L. Alfred Willson d (8.7**J. Reynolds Industries, Inc.) 11 Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27102 ~ appeared on behalf of the Defendants. ~ 12 4 z a ~ 13 s 0 ~ 14 ~ 15 16 17 18 19 .1 O w ~ w

t . , MR. BOAL: Would you swear the witness", plea-c: ;, (Witness duly sworn. ) JOHN HO:dI!RD B:,-:i3S0I1, -called as a t•titness herein, having been first duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows: Q A John Benson. @ Q Howard. .Q Okay. What is your home address, Mr. Benson? A 774 Pleasant Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois. Q How long have you been workin g for Leo -Burnett? : Q EXAMINATION By_ Mr. Boal : What is your name? - Is that your full name? Correct. No middle name? Twenty-one years. Were you working for Leo Burnett before Philip.Morris became a client? Correct",'- Do you work on Philip Morris advertising w

. 8 ~..._........•,...._, - ,.......~. _~. . _._..__._ •. , _.. _~... ...~.... _.•.~._ _._..._..__.._..... _ ........ . . A That would have been in 1955. And -ti•rhat was the nature of that ad? 3 A• As I re;:all; it was . a man in a tuxedo. And how long was the man in 5 an insertion. 7 , Q the tuxedo ucc--a? There were several different types of-ads used to broaden the appeal of Marlboro, is that correct? Q Correct. Could you name a few of the others? Amateur radio operator; a sports announcer are two that come to mind. Q Did there come a time when these other vehicles -- if I can use that term -- were dropped? A. Yes, in 1963. Q What happened in 1963? The advertising was changed. And_,what was it changed.to?. Changed to the exclusive use of cowboys, And-has that been true from that date to today?. 23 1 - A Correct:.. D.oes any other cigarette manufacturer, use :

1 0 8 0 3 5 i 8 9 v 10 I N D E X WITNESS JOHN HOWARD BENSON Examination - By Mr. Boal PAGE

!} now ? -° ! A Yes. Q 5 7 s Q Q Has all.of this advertising been prepared. ~ by Leo Burnett for Philip Morris Company? ~ advertising from the inception of the relationship betweeri Philip Morris and Leo Burnett? A Correct,. Q We have here a group of advertisements that have been copied from an exhibit .in an other litigation matter which has been prepared by Mr. Fletcher, and it was previously.identif ied in the deposition of Mr. James Morgan as Defendants' Morgan Exhibit Number 2, and I would ask you to look at this collection of advertising, Can you.identify .that advertising? (Witness examining document,) THE WITNESS: Yes, I could identify that. By .Mr, Boal:- °1 And for-now long~ have you worked on it? Twenty years, Okay, Have you worked on Philip Morris Correct. Q And it was w v+ of various kinds ~ 0 N O% F all placed in print advertising o

0 s-;., ..~ ~-~k Nj AL DEN:jb . ~ . ., I 16 17 18 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR TiiE' SOU*1: ~RN DISTRICT OF NEW 'YORK PHILIP MOT'.RIS, INCORPORAT:rD, ) -vs-. ) Plaintiff; ) ~ ) ) R. J; REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY) and WM. ESTY, INC,, ) ~ Defendants. ) No. 74.C Iv. 2395 The deposition of JOHN HOWARD BENSON, called by the defendants for examination, pursuant to notice and pursuant to the Rules of Civil Procedure for the United States District Courts pertaining to the taking of depositions for the purpose of dis- covery, taken before Diane E. Norris, a notary public within and for the County of Cook and State of Illinois, at Prudential_Plaza, Suite 1500, Chicago, Illinois, on the 12th day of November, A,D,, 19?4, commencing at the.hour of 1:30 o'clock p.m:

b ., 5 6 .._.~ ..w~_.. ...-.......r...~.._...___...._ ,..._...-. w...__ ..,....... _ _._ , ._.~._.........__ .r. .......... C,orrect, -- for Prilip Morris? Leo *Buraett d id not promote the sale of any. other Philip Morris brands at that time, did they? A Correct. Q Was there an eff ort to create a new image for Marlboro at that time -- which appears to be 1955? There was an effort to broaden the appeal of the brand. z ~ 15 .., . Q Could.you elaborate on that? The Marlboro brand on sale prior to our was a very limited specialty 16 17' 1s 19 20 21 0, 23 24 getting the assignment brand being sold, as I understood it, primarily only in the East, Q Higher priced luxury cigarette? Correct. More app-eal to females than males?. A Correct, This advertising was designed -- to broaden'the appeal to more smokers was the reason f or t,his advertisin;,- And more male: smokers? ~ v+ 0 N ~ Not necessarily, but ,to appeal just to morel = 0 v~ .

12 @. pro j ect? Were you in favor of the pro ject? vlas there w reason why you favored the A To expand the Marlboro f ranchise, Q Who did you expect to expand it to? A -To non-smokers of Marlboro Red, Q Any non-smoker of Marlboro Red? A Hopefully, yes. Q - Were there any discussions at that time as S to the target group to whom Philip Morris or Leo f! "Burnett wanted to appeal with this new cigarette? A Well, basically, as I said earlier, we ~ ) wanted to expand the franchise of the Marlboro brand ~ name,' and there were people who did not smoke Marlboro Red, and we, hopefully, were going to attract those non-smokers of Marlboro Red with another brand of Marlboro, Q Was one of the aims to protect the Marlboro franchise from erosion to high filtratiori or low tar. and nicotine cigarettes? A If-I understand your question correctly, protect the eros'ion; the answer is no, Ln Q Was there at that time any erosion f rom.the . ~

r 5 Correct, I think you have a thirty-seconci stcry board*in there. Q Thirty-second story board? Yes, wasnIt there?; All right, .:I have here another group of ads which has been`identif ied in Mr. Morgan's deposition as. , This one (indicating), . That's 1C; Is that the advertising which. was used to promote Marlboro about the time that they changed agencies?. - THE WITNESS: I'm only familiar with one of the By Mr. Boal: Q Which one is that?. A That I don't know. But you do remember that a E

i 3 5 smokers, Q Q 7 Was it successful? Yes, Do you recall any change in share of market in Marlboro during that time, 1955? 7 But it was an increase? Q ~ A Yes, Q And what was the concept used to make the broader appeal.-- was there a concept used to make V a broader appeal? No, I don't specifically.. Well, there wasn't a concept used. The idea was to present* the brand in such a manner as to be more appealing to more people. .Q And how was that done? Well, one of the devices was the use of a cowboy in the initial ad, . Q Has the use of a cowboy been continuous. ever since 1955? Did there come a time that`Philip Morris stopped usingo a cowboy-to promote Marlboro? The second ad -was not a cowboy. The second ad? When was that?'. - L" %0